Zero compromise: Why ultra-low latency and high reliability should go hand in hand
I’ve worked in media technology throughout my whole career — and I speak with broadcast engineers every day. Latency is an ever-present factor in any workflow decision-making for media engineering departments. Technology leaders are under pressure to reduce latency wherever they can, but ensuring reliability is everything — and that always wins out as the more fundamental consideration.
The common misconception that you need to sacrifice reliability for lower latency needs addressing. Innovation across the content chain and interconnected IP video distribution ecosystems are reducing latency in new ways without any trade-offs or compromises on redundancy and viewing quality. Practical latency improvements are good news for businesses and consumers. Let’s take a closer look at how to make measurable gains through an IP video distribution approach.
Who wants to be slower than their neighbor?
The desire to experience live events as close to real-time as possible is part of our nature. Viewing live sports is a community activity and nobody wants to feel that their experience is out of sync with their friends or family — particularly when the widespread use of second screen devices and ubiquity of internet connectivity means you’re never too far away from hearing about a touchdown before you see it on your stream.
Latency isn’t just an experiential consideration; there are big business implications, too. Live sports betting is a core driver of a booming gambling market which is set to reach a value of over $60 billion in the US by 2030, according to projections from global betting leader and FanDuel owner, Flutter. Decreasing latency as much as possible in live sports viewing maximizes the window where consumers can place their bets in real time, fueling additional wagering revenue and higher quality betting experiences.
Reducing latency in live event video production — without any compromises
The streaming business knows latency matters. That’s why delay times are continually decreasing as content providers push as close to broadcast-grade latency as possible. Streaming delay times in the early days of live event video production could reach well over a minute. Continued innovation in packaging and last-mile streaming delivery protocols are now supporting significantly improved latency. However, there are other important areas much earlier within the video chain where latency can, and needs to be, reduced.
Let’s start at the beginning. Any live event video production requires robust encoding, transport, and decoding capabilities to reliably bring high value live feeds from event venues to production and master control room (MCR) facilities — and eventually onto OTT distribution platforms. Although these workflows incur inherent delays due to the sheer laws of physics and their complexity in nature, there are a number of steps where streamlined engineering and an IP video distribution ecosystem can save time without jeopardizing reliability.
Unifying siloed processes across live event video production and minimizing the number of encode and decode iterations required throughout the video chain reduces latency. Acquiring content once and enabling a full suite of customization and preparation workflows within the same encode/decode cycle — from graphics and remote commentary to metadata insertion, custom SCTE markers and MCR — sidesteps avoidable latency factors associated with a disparate multi-vendor approach.
Favoring a managed IP ecosystem strategy means content providers can skip unnecessary transport hops that incur additional fractions of seconds. Choosing LTN’s multicast-enabled, global IP video distribution network and patented dynamic carrier routing and rapid error recovery protocols means you can achieve ultra-low latency delivery of <300ms worldwide with 99.999% reliability. You simply can’t get this combination and level of operational support through unmanaged, protocol-only IP solutions that are adversely affected by internet congestion and packet delay.
Power global content versioning with ultra-low latency transport
Minimizing the number of decoding and encoding cycles isn’t just about streamlining workflows and reducing latency. It’s about enabling greater content versioning and monetization potential while remaining in the same live event video production environment. Regionalization is critical in live sports — global fans want to feel more closely connected to their favorite sports from every corner of the world. One of the specific challenges in creating multi-language versions of live sporting events is integrating remote announcers in a seamless, reliable way — and as close to real-time as possible.
We work with Tier 1 media companies and rights holders to enable live sports regionalization every day. If your local language commentators are based in Mexico but your MCR infrastructure is in the US — or further afield — operating within a managed, IP-based production and transport ecosystem allows you to stitch together workflows much more effectively, reducing latency to support ultra-low latency remote integration, without a hitch.
Maximize ad value with intelligent IP video distribution
Reducing latency further up the live event video production workflow also unlocks greater advertising value. Intelligent SCTE trigger insertion that gives ad decisioning systems more time to drive bids among buyers leads to increased ad revenue. Taking advantage of built-in delays within the video distribution chain and inserting ad triggers in real time based on on-field or in-studio decisions gives ad decision services more advance notice to command a higher ad spot value.
The exciting part is that we’re only at the tip of the iceberg of what’s possible in the ad ecosystem. As encoding and decoding algorithms become faster and ad insertion moves further downstream, businesses across the ad ecosystem can utilize time more efficiently, drive greater value — and deliver more personalized ad experiences.
Embrace reliable foundations for ultra-low latency innovation today
Our industry innovates. It always has and always will. Video latency will continue to decrease through groundbreaking engineering and an ever-growing appetite to deliver more synchronized and engaging live experiences. Real-time interactive streaming is a growing and dynamic use case opening up new fan engagement features, betting, and commerce-driven revenue streams. Who’s to say that in a not-too-distant-future real-time interactivity will give live streaming audiences their opportunity to influence which play a football coach calls — or which substitute they bring onto the field?
Stepping away from the crystal ball, there are a number of practical steps that engineering and operations leaders can take to achieve measurable latency improvements in live event video production that translate to higher ROI — and zero compromise on reliability. Departmental heads should no longer need to consider the trade-offs between reliability and latency. The right technology partner means you can have the best of both worlds.